Pelosi: 60% chance Dems win House

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi said Democrats would “tattoo Medicare right to their foreheads” in an effort to seize back control of the House from Republicans.

In a wide-ranging interview with reporters as the House left town until after Election Day, Pelosi unloaded on Republicans Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan.

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Pelosi summarily dismissed Romney’s chances of defeating President Barack Obama. “I don’t think there’s any way on the face of the Earth that Mitt Romney wins the presidential,” Pelosi said. “[Obama] is gonna win big.”

The California Democrat was equally critical of Ryan, the chairman of the House Budget Committee. Ryan is author of a GOP budget plan that would transform Medicare into a program that subsidizes private insurance plans.

Democrats describe it as a “voucher program” and claim it would destroy Medicare if implemented. Republicans counter that Democrats cut $716 billion from Medicare to fund their 2010 health care plan, also known as “Obamacare.”

Pelosi called Ryan “the architect of the destruction of Medicare,” and asserted his nomination as the Republican VP candidate has boosted Democratic chances of retaking the House.

“What we think is at stake is Medicare, Medicare, Medicare, because it will not exist if they win,” Pelosi added. “Infinitely more important to me than the results of the election … is whether Medicare survives. And it will not survive if they were to win.”

Pelosi, though, refused to say whether she would stay on as Democratic leader if her party doesn’t win back the majority.

“It’s really up to my caucus who will lead the party next and my family as well, if they care to after all this time,” Pelosi said.

The California Democrat — trying to become the first lawmaker in nearly 60 years to return to the speaker’s chair after being swept out of power — said there is a “60 percent” chance that Democrats can pick up the 25 seats they need.

“The momentum is coming our way,” Pelosi said.

Pelosi, one of the most successful fundraisers in U.S. political history during her 25 years in the House, also said Republicans “have an endless spigot” of super PAC money to dump into campaigns during the last seven weeks of the race.

“If they need a billion dollars, they get a billion dollars,” Pelosi said. “If they need $2 billion dollars, they get $2 billion. As their major donors say, ‘What difference does a couple hundred million dollars to Republicans [make] when it’s going to save me billions on my estate tax?’”

Pelosi suggested that GOP-allied super PACs have a bigger impact on House races than the presidential or Senate campaigns because it is easier to overwhelm a district with large TV ad buys or a formidable get-out-the-vote operation than it is in a statewide or national fight.

However, Pelosi suggested there will be so much spending by Republican outside groups that all Democrats will get hit, no matter what office they seek.

“We [House Democrats] would be the most vulnerable in the use of big outside money, but it’s going to be there anyway,” Pelosi said. “They just have to make a few calls, a few calls.”

Pelosi favors a constitutional amendment to overturn the Citizens United court decision that opened the door to this year’s spending gush, while implementing public financing for congressional elections.